Trump officially decertifies Iran deal

United States President Donald Trump announced Friday that he will not certify Iran’s compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal. Trump said that while the US wouldn’t scrap the deal, it could “leave at any time”.

Speaking at the White House, Trump said that “We cannot and will not make this certification. We will not continue down a path whose predictable conclusion is more violence, more terror and the very real threat of Iran’s nuclear breakout.”

Trump used the speech to slam Iran, who he called a “fanatical regime” whose “aggression continues to this day. The regime remains the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism,” he said, pointing out that “the regime’s two favorite chants are ‘Death to America’ and ‘Death to Israel”.

Trump said that the United States would level new sanctions on Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, and vowed to block the Islamic Republic’s financing of terrorism around the globe.

In his speech, Trump slammed the 2015 Iran deal for what he called its lack of enforcement and for permitting Iran to make the move for a nuclear weapon after ten years. “In just a few years, as key restrictions disappear, Iran can sprint towards nuclear weapons breakout. What is the purpose of a deal that only, at best, delays Iran?” Trump asked.

“As I have said many times, the Iran deal was one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into,” he said, later accusing Iran of “not living up to the spirit of the deal.”